I'll Still Love You Tomorrow Chapter 18: I Stole The Pen

Sheng Xian, “...”

Why should he care about the way she treated herself?

He shouldn’t have wavered, coming back to pass her the honey water.

No. He shouldn’t have carried her home, he shouldn’t have alighted from the cab.

Sheng Xian pinched the collar at the back of her shirt and yanked her further away before turning to leave.

Lu Jingyan pushed as he hurried down the stairs, she leaned against the door frame and laughed cheekily, “Brother, be careful on the way back.”

Sheng Xian’s silhouette disappeared at the corner.

Lu Jingyan leaned on the staircase railing, she leaned her neck out and caught a glimpse of his shirt, “Brother, remember to contact me.”

The sound of the door shutting came from downstairs, Lu Jingyan straightened slowly and returned to her bedroom.

She hugged her pillow and leaned forward lazily, her gaze landing uncontrollably on the bedside cabinet.

Sheng Xian had brought the honey water cup down with him.

The condensation from the cup had left a circular watermark on the cabinet.

Lu Jingyan reached her fingers out to play with the water, remembering the look on his face when he was fierce towards her.

He seemed like a parent disciplining his child.

Honestly, it was rather scary.

But she wasn’t afraid.

Instead, she was a little happy,

Lu Jingyan remembered how others described her, Young Lady Lu was spoiled and wilful, behaving as she pleased.

That wasn’t her intention.

Her parents were so busy that since young, she barely saw them at home.

When she was younger, she would call them often to get their attention. In her memory, it was always their assistant or driver that would pick up the call, and they would always repeat the same thing, “Mr Lu is in a meeting.” or “Mrs Lu isn’t free now.”

Her mother would call occasionally and everytime she would pick it up happily but the moment she greeted her, her mother would say, “I called the wrong number” or “I’m looking for your father.”. Sometimes, when the person on the other end was in a good mood, they would ask, “Do you have money?” or “I’ll get the assistant to transfer you some money later.”

Her parents would never attend the parent teacher meeting, the teachers never bothered asking for the reason. The reason was simple: in order to ensure things went smoothly, her parents would always make large donations to the school everytime she enrolled in a new place.

She pretended to have a stomach ache, and went on a hunger strike like other children but her parents never showed her care.

They didn’t care about her.

She didn’t want to behave wilfully, she just wanted someone to spend more time on her.

But no one did.

No one was willing to spend a bit more time on her.

Aside from him.

“Drink it!” Lu Jingyan mimiced his harsh tone several times, and buried her face into her pillow.

He shouldn’t have let him off so easily.

She should have thought of a way to make him stay.

Lu Jingyan sighed regretfully, she reached into her pocket for a while and found a voice recorder.

She stole it when he carried her home.

Law major, a lawyer.

Lu Jingyan twirled the pen, this must be very important to him.

…

Back home, Sheng Xian took off his jacket and out of habit, he reached for the voice recorder in his pocket.

His pocket was empty.

The voice recorder he had felt the entire day was gone.

Sheng Xian frowned, he patted his pockets once more and just as he was about to search for it with his phone, it rang.

Lu Jingyan sent him a text.

It was a selfie, her eyes were curved and her head was tilted to the side.

He stared at it for two seconds, just as he was about to keep his phone, another text came in.

Lu Jingyan: “Brother, you left something in my house.”

Sheng Xian paused, that was when he realized she was holding his voice recorder in the photo she sent.

Sheng Xian, “...”

She was taking a photo of the pen, not herself.

Lu Jingyan, “Brother, I'll deliver it to you tomorrow during your lunch break.”

Sheng Xian, “I’ll get it.”

Lu Jingyan, “You’re too far away, and I have a meeting in the area tomorrow afternoon. I’ll bring it over.”

Sheng Xian, “Thank you.”

After a moment of silence, Sheng Xian closed his phone screen.

…I’ll treat you to lunch tomorrow.

Before he could finish typing the sentence, another text came in, “Don’t worry, I stole the voice recorder, I want to see you tomorrow.”

Sheng Xian, “...”

After three seconds, Sheng Xian deleted the half written text and placed his phone on the table. He tugged his collar and went into the bathroom.

Standing under the shower, Sheng Xian thought about the things Bo Mu had told him in the school car park that afternoon.

“I know Lu Jingyan very well, she would never like you, she just treats you as an object, akin to an item in the supermarket that she can buy. Once she sets her sights on something, she wouldn’t care what you think, once she possesses you, she wouldn’t bother with you anymore.”

“In her eyes, you aren’t any different from the other men she dated, you’re just a toy.”

A toy.

Sheng Xian suddenly felt annoyed again.

He was even more annoyed than when he saw her barefooted in her bedroom.

What are you so annoyed about?

You can’t like someone with your illness.

Isn’t it good that she treats you as a toy? At least she wouldn’t be hurt.

Once she’s had her fun, she won't mess with you anymore.

What are you annoyed about?

Sheng Xian shut his eyes, he stood under the shower and exhaled softly.

…

The night before, Lu Jingyan didn’t feel cold while drinking and smoking by the roadside.

But when she woke up the next day, her head was aching, her nose was blocked and she kept sneezing. She started to regret her foolish behavior. She took a moment to wake up, restraining the ache in her head, she climbed up from the bed.

With her cold, Lu Jingyan didn’t have much appetite, drinking only a small bit of her porridge before leaving for work.

Stuffy from her blocked nose, Lu Jingyan felt tired the entire morning. She wanted to return Sheng Xian’s voice recorder in the afternoon but her cold worsened, she started running a low fever and her throat hurt so much she couldn’t speak.

…

In the afternoon, before Sheng Xian’s assistant went for lunch, he asked Sheng Xian, who was reading his notes, “Prof Sheng, what do you want for lunch?”

Sheng Xian replied faintly, “I don’t need lunch.”

His assistant thought Sheng Xian had an appointment and left to get his own food.

After half an hour, when he returned to the office, Sheng Xian was still there. He asked, “Prof Sheng, why haven’t you gotten lunch?”

Sheng Xian glanced at the time, “I’ll go in a while.”

His assistant didn’t probe further.

After around ten minutes, Sheng Xian’s phone rang.

It was the city courier.

His assistant went down to collect the parcel, and helped to open the package, ‘Mmh, why is this…”

His assistant paused midway.

Sheng Xian glanced up.

It was a pack of pink sanitary pads.

His assistant was a grown man in his twenties, embarrassed, he placed the sanitary pad on Sheng Xian’s table and went back to his own seat.

Sheng Xian stared at the pad for a while, and used a pen to peel open the already opened package.

Amidst the thin square packages was a black voice recorder.

Sheng Xian, “...”

It was really her.

Sheng Xian took his voice recorder and tossed it on his table. He reached for the pads and aimed for the trash bin, but he didn’t throw it away.

After a few seconds, he pulled open his cupboard and stuffed the sanitary pads inside.

Seems like she wasn’t going to come today.

Sheng Xian stopped twirling his pen, after a moment, he looked at the voice recorder.

After another moment, he laughed coldly.

Sheng Xian, you really are ill.

Wasn’t it good that she isn’t coming? What are you anticipating?

Sheng Xian exhaled, he placed his pen down and grabbed his jacket, prepared to go out.

Before he could stand, his phone rang.

It was from Lu Jingyan.

He stared at the screen calmly for a long while before answering the call.

Her voice was husky, it seemed as though she just woke up, “Brother, did you receive the package?”

Sheng Xian glanced at the voice recorder indifferently, “Mmh.”

“I didn’t listen to the recordings at all. The recorder must be very important to you and I was afraid the courier might touch it so I hid it in the sanitary pads.” She paused and sneezed violently.

Sheng Xian frowned, and realized her voice was husky because she was sick, not because she just woke up.

He paused and asked, “You’re sick?”

“Mmh.” She replied sickly, sniffing, she added, “I wanted to visit you but the cold is quite serious, I don’t want to pass it to you.”